Holy of Holies

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Holy  of  Holies

Uranda   July 17, 1953

In the encampment of the children of Israel we recognize that each tribe was composed of both male and female. So the positive and negative aspects are seen in the body of the encampment itself. But the positive and negative, or male and female aspects, manifest in many different ways. We have recognized that this particular pattern extends from the solar system to the atom, and is in control, properly, in the divine design, with all things between these two extremes. So let us note with respect to the tabernacle itself what the pattern is. 

There was the outer court of the tabernacle, and anyone who was properly clean, not degenerated into a pattern of just physical cleanliness, etc., but anyone who was classified as clean and was a member of the encampment, in a right sense, could go into the outer court under certain conditions or at certain times. It was more or less open to all. And then there was the next point, with respect to the holy place. It was one of the two rooms of the tabernacle itself, and the holy place was forbidden territory to the people, generally speaking, but any of the priests who were properly officiating could enter the holy place. But at one end of the tabernacle there was a smaller room, cut off by hangings, which was classified as the Holy of Holies. So we see here the three again: the encampment itself, composed of the people, the physical body; the outer court; and then the holy place. And then the Holy of Holies. With the Holy of Holies we have the fourth, the fourth place, which was the place of the ark; and the ark of the covenant provided the means by which the evidence of the presence of the One who Dwells could be made manifest. So the encampment itself represented the physical body, male and female, your physical body. But next we come, as far as the tabernacle is concerned, to the outer court, which symbolizes your outer or your conscious mind. And then the holy place, symbolizing what we call your spiritual expression plane, or the third plane of being. 

But then, within the tabernacle, inside of all of this, was the Holy of Holies, and the only entrance to the Holy of Holies was through the holy place—no entrance into the Holy of Holies except through the holy place. Now the holy place is the place of spiritual things, of spiritual realization, of spiritual understanding, of spiritual correlation with Deity. But the Holy of Holies is the place of Deity, and only the high priest was authorized to enter the Holy of Holies. And it is in the Holy of Holies that we find the Ark of the Covenant, representing the reality of the presence of the One Who Dwells. So your own Lord, or your own individual God being, is indicated there. …

The holy place is a place where all true members of the priesthood may serve in their appointed season, representing the people to God and representing God to the people. Now there is a dual function of those who are true members of the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. The priesthood serves in a dual capacity: representing the people to God, and representing God to the people. Then, in the holy place there is a direct contact; the people could come into the outer court, and any authorized member of the priesthood could be in the holy place. There we have the close association pattern. But only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies, carrying the pattern to a point of focalization. The people themselves, the body of the twelve tribes, is carried into a pattern of focalization in the priesthood; and the priesthood is carried into a pattern of focalization in the high priest, the supreme point; and the supreme point of this focalization meets the focalization of Deity in the Holy of Holies. So there is the contact, in the direct sense, with God. …

We have male and female in the body of mankind. When it emerges to the point of the representation where we are considering the priesthood in the tabernacle, what do we find? The priesthood as such, then, represents the positive or male principle, and the tabernacle as such represents the negative or female principle. In the final analysis we find that the high priest represents the male sex organ, and the Holy of Holies represents the female sex organs; because sex, in its divine sense, in its true sense, is the holiest and most sacred thing that there is in relationship to mankind on earth.

from

The  Holy  of  Holies

Martin Cecil   December 25, 1972

In the story told in the Book of Job long ago, "There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them." Satan is the self-centered, self-willed consciousness of man. The self-centeredness and the self-will of man is what impels him to do what he does. Satan is certainly not an unknown quantity in the world as it is in this day and hour, for here is the compulsion which drives men to do what they do. In that day long ago, it is said that Job was a perfect and an upright man who feared God and eschewed evil. There was, however, evidently a weakness in the hedge about him. One of the evidences of this weakness was indicated at the point when his wife suggested that he curse God and die; she was not in agreement with him. Because of whatever weaknesses there were in Job's hedge Satan was able to enter in, bringing disaster. Because the holy place was not maintained by those who were responsible for it the hedge was breached. The self-centered, self-willed consciousness of man, Satan, the adversary, took command of the situation temporarily and, as I say, there was disaster and tragedy.

As I welcome you to the holy place this morning as the sons and daughters of God the question arises as to whether Satan comes with you, whether there is anything remaining in your consciousness which is in agreement with the self-centered, self-willed state. At that time, because there was a weakness in the hedge, what Satan had to say necessarily had to be listened to. This morning I trust that we may ignore anything that he may have to say. He has many specious arguments to maintain his position in those who are self-willed and self-centered, but relinquishing this state of consciousness in favor of praise and thanksgiving to God, Satan may be ignored, certainly not agreed with. Because our agreement is with the Lord in the holy place we may come before the veil which connects the holy place with the Holy of Holies.

To you this morning I represent that most holy place. And remember that only the High Priest enters therein. But the High Priest—whoever he may be at any particular time in the unfoldment of the creative purposes of God—represents the Lord to the priesthood and represents the priesthood to the Lord. The High Priest and the priesthood represent the Lord to the people and the people to the Lord (these are the people of the encampment). The High Priest, the priesthood and the people of the encampment represent the Lord to the world and the world to the Lord. Here is the first recognition of a certain detail to the pattern of representation. There is an intricacy to it, requiring each individual to be faithful and true, maintaining integrity in his or her place in the overall design.

In this pattern of representation, we have moved out of the encampment into the outer court and through the outer court into the holy place to provide the setting in the holy place for the spirit of the living God. That spirit is represented to you this morning by the spirit of the words which I speak, that you may know that the holy place is a reality because of the reality on earth of the Holy of Holies. All that is essential to every human being on the face of the earth springs from the Holy of Holies. To deny this truth is to die. Because the children of men, in their self-centeredness and self-will, have been persistently denying this truth and betraying the Lord in consequence, they have died, and the whole world moves to the point of death. Death to what? To self-centeredness and self-will. If a person is identified with this then it is death to that person, but if the priesthood is present on earth in right relationship to the High Priest, then the door is opened to life; there is life for the world; there is a future for the world on this basis. Those who indulge in self-will and self-centeredness take the attitude, so often, described by the words, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." That's true, of course, for those who indulge in such fantasy. Death is the chosen course, but only by reason of their own attitudes, by reason of their own decision; for the Lord has ordained life. This is a world of life. This is a world uniquely created to reveal the glory of life in all its fulness. What remarkable variety there is on earth for this purpose even now after all these thousands of years of human self-centeredness and self-will.

So we stand again in the holy place, aware of the reality of life, life which is revealed by the cloud of glory of the Shekinah Pattern. The cloud of glory emanates from the Holy of Holies because therein is the light that glows and the fire that burns, the source and the origination of everything that is required for the manifestation of life at every level on earth through mineral, vegetable, animal and man. But man holds the key to life or death. Assuming the posture of ignorant self-centeredness and self-will, he dies, and he takes his world with him. 

Acknowledging again the reality of life as represented by the priesthood and the High Priest, the experience of what has been called the resurrection immediately applies. There are two ways: the broad way in which human beings have been treading recklessly for centuries, and the narrow way, the way of integrity, the way of honor and honesty, the way of beauty and meaning, the way of life. Out of the Holy of Holies the word is spoken through the priesthood, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve: If the Lord be God then serve Him, but if Baal, Satan, self-centeredness, then serve him." Every human being on the face of the earth must make this choice. This choice has been made in every generation all down through the ages, but now we come to the time of culmination when the whole stupid mess of self-centeredness may be swept from the face of the earth. This occurs by reason of the creative power of God, not by any mighty effort of man, whose sole effort is the digging of his own grave.

This year, as never before, the unfoldment of what has been occurring during this weekend of Christmas has been placed in my hands so that the spiritual aspects of Christmas might dominate. Heretofore, the material aspects have tended to dominate. All that has been unfolding here was brought to me by those responsible so that it might be to this extent in my hands. Because it has been in my hands and because there has been the openness of response that has appeared, because of whatever measure of integrity is present, we have moved to this hour. We have moved to stand before the veil, a place of trembling and yet a place longed for in the hearts of those whose response and integrity brings them here.

The veil connects the Holy of Holies with the holy place. It is not a veil of separation. It is a veil that is rightly there, impenetrable to all but the High Priest, and no one with integrity would ever seek to tear it aside. It is of the quality that allows what is present in the Holy of Holies to shine forth into the holy place, so that the holy place may be the place of the experience of what originates in the Holy of Holies. The setting of holiness is maintained that it might be so, that the birth of water and of the spirit might be the constant experience. As this hedge is maintained to preserve the holiness of the holy place the creative power of God becomes increasingly evident, shining forth through the veil into the holy place, through the priesthood into the outer court where the consciousness of those who occupy the encampment comes to focus in praise and thanksgiving. The glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle, the outer court, the encampment, and shines round about. There is nothing on earth that can contend with the power of God when it is made manifest in this fashion. The world is inevitably restored and man comes again into his place, made in the image and likeness of God, walking upright and perfect on earth, fearing God and eschewing evil. Behold, all things are thereby made new. The world becomes again a world of life and not a world of death, the world of God and not the world of Satan.

Lift up your hearts and eyes in this hour in praise and thanksgiving to God in the consciousness of the quality and the character of God, which is your own, and in the awareness of the Lord God in the holy place, in the midst. As the Lord Himself said when He was on earth, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name"—in the consciousness of me—"there I am in the midst of them." So it is in this hour. So it is in every hour when there are men and women of integrity who stand in that integrity revealing the truth of themselves in the expression of the glory of life on earth. That glory of life made manifest is the cloud of glory of the Shekinah. Behold, in this hour, so it is established to you, and through you and all those of integrity who share the responsibility of the priesthood of God on earth today.

© emissaries of divine light

The Holy Place

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 The  Holy  Place

Martin Cecil   December 24, 1972

There is a holy place for the world and there is a holy place available to the experience of each individual. Individually speaking, to be a part of this great nation, that holy place must be known by those who compose it in the individual sense. There is a holy place for the world into which all do not enter. Those who might be called the priesthood rightly enter and minister in and from the holy place, but the great mass of the true nation do not come in. All that is needful insofar as they are concerned is to know the holy place within themselves, individually speaking, and share in the ministry of the priesthood who represent God to them and them to God.

Mention has been made of the mountain peak. From this mountain peak the true ministry extends; the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle and shines round about. It extends into the whole nation, into the whole earth. But the means by which it appears, the means by which the atmosphere of holiness is known on earth, is through the very specific design which was established in the beginning and still remains to this day. But to be meaningful this design must be activated within the experience of mankind, and it is only activated by people. There is no other means on the face of the earth by which the spirit of God may be active, active in this very specific creative sense. It is not activated by people who arrive from outer space in flying saucers; it is not activated by some invisible, unknown angels in heaven somewhere; it is activated through man. If there are no men and women on earth to let it be activated on earth, it is not activated within the experience of human beings and within the experience of the realm for which they carry responsibility.

An essential element in the design is the holy place. We mentioned the outer court and the encampment; all these are necessarily present. There is a physical form to mankind and that physical form includes a consciousness, a capacity for something. To allow the fulfilling of that capacity the gate must be opened to the holy place, because out of the holy place come the essential qualities which fill the consciousness of man, shining through his physical form round about. The requirement in relationship to that consciousness, if the gate is to be opened, is the attitude of praise and thanksgiving; without that the door is shut. When this essential requirement is present the gate begins to swing wide so that what is inherent in the spirit of God, the character of God, may begin to fill the capacity for character in man. Most of that capacity for character is empty in human beings in the general sense. But when praise and thanksgiving are present in the consciousness of the individual, then it is natural to accept and rejoice in the true qualities and characteristics of being: the spirit of God.

These are found in the holy place; consequently there must be a holy place if they are to be found. There must be a holy place in the individual if he is to find himself in the truth of his own being, and that holy place cannot be discovered by any external means. What is required is to make available the right setting, to be born of water, so that the setting of praise and thanksgiving and openness of response, and, above all, of integrity, may be available for the outpouring of the spirit, the outpouring of the individuals' own character. This is the discovery to be made. He can't find it by shopping around in the external sense. Most people seek here, seek there, looking for what is already present within themselves but unknown, imagining that it may be found by various external means. So people waste their lives in this foolishness; life runs out before they have visited all the shops. Only those who turn away from the shops because their integrity impels them to do so may come again into the outer court which surrounds the tabernacle, the tabernacle that is with men, and, coming there, become aware of the tabernacle itself, of the fact that there is a door through which entrance may be made—all this because of the attitude of praise and thanksgiving. The awareness begins to permeate the consciousness that there is something present now with oneself, with each individual, that is not discernible in an external sense but which nevertheless is known to be of supreme value. The pearl of great price, the treasure buried in the field—all these have reference to what is present because of the holy place.

The holy place does not originate what is present in it, but what is present in the holy place would not be present without the holy place. The attitude of holiness must be present in a person, maintained there because he has integrity, a place in himself that he would never allow to be violated under any circumstances. It is a place into which others, in the general sense, may not enter, just as in the holy place in the tabernacle in the overall sense, only the priesthood minister there. It is the place of purity, the place from which springs all that is beautiful, all that is creative, all that is worthwhile. The holy place adjoins what was called the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, another place behind the veil. That is the place from which springs the treasure to be found when there is a holy place in the individual's experience and when there is a place kept holy because there is a true priesthood, a place kept holy for the world. The true holy place has been long absent from the face of the earth. There has been an endeavor to substitute a distorted outer court for the holy place: the consciousness of man. It was thought that this could be developed, increased in capacity, made to be supremely meaningful, to rule the world. All it has done has been to bring chaos and tragedy to the children of men, and yet human beings everywhere continue to wonder after the beast.

We are concerned to come again to the holy place, that there may be a holy place for the world. Without it, what is there? A very bleak future, to say the least. But through the holy place may spring forth the creative power of God: God in action on earth, Jehovah, the Son of God. Those who begin to become conscious of these things—and we must necessarily speak of them in parables or in symbols—have the responsibility of maintaining the reality on earth. The holy place cannot be here in any meaningful sense until there is a priesthood to administer what springs forth by reason of the holy place. It could spring forth forever without effect if there was nobody on hand to administer it.

So here we are, knowing where the Lord is to be found, through the holy place, presenting ourselves to the Lord that we may, with others, play our part in the service of the holy place, bringing again the vessels which have long been in disuse or been subject to misuse, that the true service may be rendered through them once more. As we all surely know, those vessels are thoughts and words and deeds, the vessels which become meaningful when they are filled with the oil of love, the truth of love, the creative fire. How recklessly human beings allow thoughts and words and deeds to find expression. They are mostly used, of course, for self-benefit, self-aggrandizement, in one way or another. They have been stolen from the holy place and taken into the place of defilement for misuse. Is it any wonder that the beautiful world of God has been wrecked? Yet the creative power of God is present; the holy place is available the very moment that there is a priesthood to enter in. They enter in through the gate of praise and thanksgiving, bearing the vessels of the tabernacle for use in the holy place. If you come into the holy place you bring with you your thought processes, your ability to speak and to act. Fortunately the holy place is self-cleansing, so that those who bring defilement with them are shortly ejected by their own attitudes and actions. There have been many who have approached the holy place only to find themselves ejected. All down through the ages it has been done, so that it has remained empty, unknown, insofar as the world is concerned. It only becomes known when there is a priesthood who represent God to the people and the people to God, when the holiness of the holy place is made evident through the priesthood. That holiness is made evident by reason of thought, word and act.

If we approach the holy place, let us remember that we come bearing these vessels of the temple, and let us remember that we have heretofore been receivers of stolen goods. We have thought to use these things for ourselves, to do with them as we pleased, to achieve our own purposes for our own benefit. The vessels of the temple are for the Lord's use, filled solely with His spirit, with His character, with the qualities of His being, and consequently under His control and brought forth in the true design. When this is so, the Shekinah fills the tabernacle and shines round about. Here is the creative power of God once again present and working through man on earth; not through all mankind, certainly, but through those who represent God to the people, that the people may rejoice and themselves partake of the character of God and live. Those who refuse, die. What all this means in the experience of the world remains to be seen and to be experienced, which occurs as there is the priesthood ministering in the holy place.

In the atmosphere of holiness we may share the thoughts and the words and the actions which are fitting in the holy place, coming into position to allow what is present in the Holy of Holies to shine forth unhindered because it may be received into the holy place; there is someone present to receive it. To the extent that there is a holy place occupied by the priesthood, then the apex experience may come as it relates to the Holy of Holies, not that there is an entering into the Holy of Holies but that what is present by reason of the Holy of Holies may be the experience in the holy place. It is so as there are those with integrity, filled with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, bringing the openness of yielded response and the clarity of thought, word and act in living into the holy place. Glory to God in the highest!

© emissaries of divine light

The Outer Court

from

The  Outer  Court

Martin Cecil   December 24, 1972

Praise ye the Lord! Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Let everything which gives evidence of the spirit of life reveal the true nature of God. We enter into the holy place through the gates of praise; praise and the spirit of thanksgiving are the character, therefore, of the outer court of the tabernacle. Entrance to the tabernacle is through the outer court, which represents the consciousness of man.

In the original encampment of the children of Israel the Levites, or the priesthood, occupied a position around the tabernacle. Beyond them was the encampment of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. The priesthood represented God to the people and represented the people to God. The tabernacle itself provided a symbol of the means by which God and man are unified. Mankind, including the children of Israel, at that time had forgotten what the oneness of God and man really was. A portrayal was provided to indicate something of the essential elements by which that unification could again be restored. Here was a reminder which apparently was not recognized for what it was and did not in any adequate sense call to remembrance in the children of Israel what had been forgotten. That forgetfulness has persisted. When our Master came on earth He provided another reminder--a reminder which has also had little effect.

If we examine the nature of the pattern as it was at the time of the children of Israel let us not see it merely as history, for the principles portrayed there are as true today as they were then. It is essential that we understand now what the application of those principles is at the present time. The application is different now to what it was then, even as it was different at the time when our Master was on earth to what it was with the children of Israel. The tribes of the children of Israel in their encampment represent for us the responding ones of the world: those who, consciously or unconsciously, have integrity toward the Lord. The Jews are not the Israelites, though out of the Jewish nation may come responding ones of integrity, even as they may come out of all nations. These are the children of Israel today. We may use other words to convey the same idea. 

We have spoken of the body of the Son of God. The body of the Son of God and the children of Israel are, properly, the same thing; and insofar as the world today is concerned this body is composed of responding ones with integrity out of every kindred, nation, tongue and people. This is the encampment of the twelve tribes. We recognize that the word "Jehovah" indicates God in action on earth. The children of Israel are the means by which this action is made manifest on earth. Jehovah and the children of Israel represent the two aspects, positive and negative, of the reality of being--the inner and the outer, the invisible and the visible. Using other terms, we would say the Son of God and the body of the Son of God.

Those who begin to have a conscious recognition of the truth in this regard and who reveal the reality of integrity constitute the priesthood, who provide representation of God to the people and the people to God. We may well be reminded of what occurred on the third day of creation, when God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear." The waters symbolize the truth of the external aspect of the duality aforementioned: Jehovah and the children of Israel, or the Son of God and the body of the Son of God. The twelve tribes of the children of Israel represent the body of the Son of God. The priesthood represent that body to God and God to that body. The priesthood were the thirteenth tribe. Here is the lucky number, relating to the true design which has never been allowed to operate as it should since man fell.

The water, the truth of the external manifestation, must be gathered unto one place. The water, the external truth, provides the setting for the manifestation of the spirit on earth. The gathering together of the waters brings again the setting by which Jehovah, the Son of God, may be revealed in action on earth. The waters, the truth in the external sense, indicate response and integrity. This is the real nature of man: responsive to God and revealing integrity. The gathering together of the response of those who have integrity throughout the whole world must be brought to one place--a point of focus, the point of focus represented by the priesthood, by those who are consciously in position to let this occur. This one place indicates the point which has position but no magnitude, that which is beyond the comprehension of what is contained in the dimensional world.

When the waters are gathered together unto one place, then the dry land appears: the manifest form of the body of the Son of God begins to become apparent. From our standpoint we begin to become aware of what it is. It is understandable that when the waters are gathered unto one place the dry land is not immediately particularly dry; it's muddy, it's a mixture, so that the actual form itself cannot be clearly discerned. All that presently can be discerned in form relates to the mountain top, so to speak, from which the water has drained for some little time. But there is also a consciousness from the standpoint of those who are on the mountain top of what it is that constitutes the body of the encampment, the body of the great nation: those who are responsive to the spirit of God and who exemplify integrity. There are many such the world around. Through the priesthood they are gathered unto the one place of the encampment; and through the priesthood the response may be lifted and brought into the outer court of the tabernacle, the place of the consciousness of the body of the Son of God.

The awakening of that consciousness is made possible through praise and thanksgiving. This is truly the gate to the holy place. This new spirit is, rightly, represented by the priesthood, revealed by the priesthood, exemplified by the priesthood, so that all who compose the body of the Son of God may be restored to the consciousness of praise and thanksgiving. This is far from the usual state in the consciousness of human beings on earth. Human consciousness is generally filled with turmoil and complaint; it is filled with fear and shame and guilt; it is filled with resentment and hate; and it seems, from this standpoint, to be the height of hypocrisy to allow the consciousness to be filled with praise and thanksgiving. Human beings say, "What is there to praise? What is there to be thankful for?" Nothing, if you look away from the Lord; nothing, if the tabernacle remains invisible. The tabernacle does remain invisible until it is approached through the outer court. There is no approach through the outer court without praise and thanksgiving.

It has been emphasized all along the way that the spirit of thankfulness is a first requirement. There is a sense of thankfulness which wells up in men and women of integrity. That thankfulness relates to the very experience of integrity. If there is no experience in that regard a person may well say there is nothing to be thankful for, there is no reason for praise. But for those whose response is open to the spirit of God and who in their living exemplify integrity there wells up from within a sense of praise and thanksgiving which is not, initially at least, related particularly to external events but to the very experience of life and being. Because most people are so thoroughly mired in externals, response to the spirit of God is minimal and integrity falls by the wayside. There is then desolation indeed, and the core within such people, which should be the holy place, is a place of desolation. Insofar as they are concerned the abomination of desolation stands in the holy place.

But where there is true response and integrity, praise and thanksgiving are natural. Such find again the outer court with the tabernacle in the midst. Praise ye the Lord in the spirit of thankfulness for the integrity which is sensed at the core of one's being. If there is no integrity sensed, there will be no experience of praise and thanksgiving. Those who deny and betray the reality of integrity within themselves classify themselves; those who are true to that integrity also classify themselves, not by what they say or believe in but by what they are in their own living. Nobody can fool the Lord. Where integrity is, there is a willingness to let it be God's way without interference. Does a person need a lofty intellect to praise the Lord? to experience the spirit of thanksgiving? Usually the more intellect a person has the more reasons he has for not praising the Lord and for not experiencing a sense of thankfulness. He thinks he sees everything so clearly and it's awful! That is deep darkness; nothing is seen; it's all hallucination. But the world of God is not so; it springs forth into manifest expression through the facility which was designed to let it be so. As long as human beings have their backs to this facility it means nothing to them.

But turning to see the voice which speaks on earth because the priesthood begins to be present on earth, the encampment of the true Israelites begins to be unveiled with the priesthood at the core, camped round about the tabernacle. It becomes possible once more to enter into the outer court with praise and thanksgiving. When the consciousness begins to be permeated by this quality, the reality of the tabernacle becomes evident. The consciousness of the body of the Son of God is brought into the outer court, gathered into one place by those who provide the facility for so doing. These are describable as the priesthood, those into whose hands this responsibility has been placed because they have become consciously aware of it.

And so this morning, having breath, the spirit of life, praise ye the Lord! Provide the focus of thanksgiving for responding men and women of integrity the world around. Here is our service in this one place, one place for us and for many others in this new state of consciousness, which is not limited, certainly, to our experience here but is shared in by those who have accepted the responsibility of the priesthood wherever they may be. It is still one place, the same state of consciousness, characterized primarily by praise and thanksgiving. Glory to God in the highest. What an excellent opportunity is offered to let it all be brought to focus in the outer court of the tabernacle preparatory to bringing it before the Lord in the holy place. There is no entrance into the holy place except through the outer court, and the outer court only provides the open gate when there is a consciousness of praise and thanksgiving. "Praise ye the Lord!"

© emissaries of divine light